Study high school teachers to explore their sense of well-being during the transition to a virtual classroom in a global pandemic

ORIGINAL QUESTION

Assessment Description

You have been asked to study high school teachers to explore their sense of well-being during the transition to a virtual classroom in a global pandemic. You believe a phenomenological inquiry to be a justifiable approach to this topic. What rationale would you give stakeholders for conducting a phenomenological inquiry? Explain. 

Student 1- Jemel

Conducting a study of high school teachers to explored their sense of well-being during the transition to a virtual classroom during the pandemic could be adequately studied using a phenomenological inquiry. In the phenomenological design, the researcher is interested in the perceptions and beliefs about a specific area for the participants (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). In the proposed study, the goal is to understand the perceptions and beliefs of high school teachers. This design will examine the teachers’ experiences (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Because these experiences could be positive and negative emotional, they influence the perspective the teachers transition to virtual learning. The strength of the design is that it relies on the variety of data gathered to collectively tell the story of teachers and thus seeking to answer the phenomena (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Furthermore, all pieces of data collected, all individual experiences are of equal importance and value (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The phenomenological inquiry will give the researcher the ability to come away from the study feeling as if they understand what it was like to have the same experiences of the teachers who are studied (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).

Reference

Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (4th ed.). Wiley. ISBN-13: 9781119003618

Student 2- Bind

The rationale for conducting a phenomenological inquiry is that it creates opportunities to understand the experiences of high school teachers and their sense of well-being during the transition to a virtual classroom in a global pandemic. The qualitative method of phenomenology provides a theoretical framework for psychological research. It allows researchers to engage in flexible activities that describe and help understand complex phenomena, such as various aspects of human social experience (Neubauer et al.,2019). Phenomenological research can broaden our understanding of complex learning, behavior, and communication phenomena. Amongst qualitative research design, phenomenology captures a subject’s lived experience about a phenomenon to understand how this phenomenon appears in the individual’s conscious experience. In phenomenology, experience is conceived as uniquely perspectival, embodied, and situated. Phenomenological approaches are particularly relevant for researching experiences, thoughts, imagination, intentions, desires, or volition. Perhaps most critically, scholars must construct research processes that align with the chosen methodology’s tenets and underlying philosophical roots. This alignment is the cornerstone for establishing research rigor and trustworthiness. (Sibeoni et al., 2020).

Student 3- Mel

A sudden switch to a novel mode of delivery of services creates challenges for rules, regulations, and ensuring quality are questions that are only possible with direct input from those experiencing those changes. Phenomenology as a design provides an opportunity to learn from the lived experience of others (Neubauer et al., 2019). A sudden change during a global pandemic causes shutdowns and changes in service delivery. For education, teachers were instructed to turn in-person courses into online events. Learning management systems (LMS) rapidly grow from a stable number of participants to increased numbers that strain the software platforms. Educators and students must navigate a new learning environment without planned training, all while facing challenges of uncertainty during a global pandemic. This scenario would benefit from a phenomenological inquiry to gain insight into the lived experiences of high school teachers.

Through a phenomenological study, the researcher can discover themes of high school teachers’ perspectives as they face challenges converting coursework to virtual learning. Obtaining this perspective and the challenges would be useful to improve and understand the educational development of this event (Faridah et al., 2021). The level of detail and ability to understand what was experienced and how teachers experienced the change to virtual learning can only be described through phenomenology  (Neubauer et al., 2019). Overall, phenomenology creates a unique understanding of the lived experience of participants, in this case, the well-being of high school teachers as they transitioned classes to a virtual environment during a global pandemic.

Faridah, L., Ekawardhani, S., Wiraswati, H. L., Fauziah, N., Aviani, J. K., & Ramadan, D. (2021). Experiences and challenges of distance learning during Covid-19 pandemic from educators’ point of view: A review. Education Quarterly Reviews, 4(3), 468-483. https://doi.org/10.31014/aior.1993.04.03.354